Cowbell Cyber cyber policy application, held
The questions of the Cowbell Cyber Prime 250 Renewal Application, held and mapped to the ISO 27001:2022 controls, the SOC 2 criteria and the NIST CSF 2.0 outcomes each one reaches. The source document (read 2026-10-11). The date shown is the date this copy was read, not a version the form itself states. This page quotes only the question each mapped row needs and states its source; it does not publish the carrier's form. A complete form would be held only under a stated policy for copyrighted forms. Cowbell Cyber is a source document, never a customer.
This document's questions reach 55 of 290 held controls. Whether an applicant is offered cover is the carrier’s underwriting decision. 1 question here is flagged knockout (a "no" is a common decline point) and 0 flagged warranty (an answer the carrier relies on, that can affect cover if wrong).
No held control answers this line.
- The topic-specific backup policy and backup plans stating scope, extent, frequency and retention per system aligned with RPO
- Backup job monitoring reports with evidence that failed jobs were investigated and rerun
- Documented availability requirements for business services and systems
- Architecture diagrams showing redundancy such as dual providers, redundant networks, separate data centres, redundant power and load-balanced instances
- Backup policy defining scope, frequency and retention
- Backup job monitoring and failure remediation records
- Disaster recovery or continuity test plan and results in the period
- Backup restore test records with verification of completeness
- Backup policy with frequency and retention
- Backup integrity test reports
Flagged knockout: the wording of this question makes a "no" a common point at which a cyber application is declined or referred.
- An authentication standard linking required authentication strength to information classification and system criticality
- MFA configuration and coverage reports for critical systems, remote access and privileged access, including conditional or risk-based rules
- Credential issuance procedure requiring identity verification before new, replacement or temporary credentials are provided
- Evidence that initial credentials are unique, delivered over protected channels and changed at first use
- Asset inventory with classification for in-scope systems
- Identity provider configuration showing MFA and password policy
- Multi factor authentication coverage report
- Phishing resistant authentication rollout plan
- Business continuity plans that contain information security requirements and the controls, systems and tools needed during disruption
- A documented analysis of which security controls must be adapted during disruption and how
- The business impact analysis with prioritized activities, supporting ICT services and their RTOs, and RPOs for required information
- Selected ICT continuity strategies covering before, during and after disruption
- Documented availability requirements for business services and systems
- Architecture diagrams showing redundancy such as dual providers, redundant networks, separate data centres, redundant power and load-balanced instances
- Business continuity and disaster recovery plans covering the in-scope service
- Business impact analysis
- Backup policy defining scope, frequency and retention
- Backup job monitoring and failure remediation records
- Resilience architecture patterns for critical services
- Failover and failback tested with evidence
- Recovery plan with triggers and decision rights
- Execution log of recovery activities
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
- The top-level information security policy with top management approval, covering the definition, objectives or objective-setting framework, principles, commitments to requirements and continual improvement, role assignments and the exceptions procedure
- The register of topic-specific policies with an owner, approving manager and version for each
- A documented roles and responsibilities matrix covering asset protection, specific security processes, risk management and residual risk acceptance, and user duties
- Named risk owners with evidence that they accepted residual risks
- Evidence that security briefings on roles and responsibilities occur before access is granted, such as onboarding checklists tied to access provisioning
- Role-specific guidance documents setting out security expectations
- Current organisation chart including security, IT operations, compliance and privacy functions
- Job descriptions or RACI naming security and privacy responsibilities
- Approved information security policy set with owners and review dates
- Evidence of annual policy review and approval
- Cybersecurity risk management policy approved by leadership
- Policy linkage matrix to standards and procedures
- Board cyber accountability charter
- Executive cyber scorecard with named owners
- A documented awareness, education and training programme aligned with the policies and planned by role, including external personnel
- Completion records for initial training of new starters and role changers and for periodic refreshers
- Background check policy and completed checks for a sample of new hires and contractors
- Role competency requirements and performance review records
- Security awareness training content and completion records
- Published information security policies accessible to staff with change notices
- Security awareness program curriculum
- Completion records by population
- The topic-specific cryptography policy with approved algorithms, key lengths, protocols and usage by information classification
- Evidence of encryption on endpoints, removable media and data in transit, aligned with the policy
- The topic-specific information transfer policy and its communication record
- Transfer agreements with third parties covering recipient authentication, protection levels, incident liability and labelling
- TLS and encryption standards for data in transit
- Removable media policy and technical enforcement
- Asset inventory with classification for in-scope systems
- Identity provider configuration showing MFA and password policy
- TLS configuration standards and scan results
- VPN and zero trust network access policy
- Data at rest encryption inventory by store type
- Storage configuration baselines with attestation
- The topic-specific cryptography policy with approved algorithms, key lengths, protocols and usage by information classification
- Evidence of encryption on endpoints, removable media and data in transit, aligned with the policy
- The topic-specific removable media policy and evidence it was communicated to users
- Endpoint configuration showing USB and SD ports disabled unless a business reason is approved, and monitoring of transfers to removable media
- The topic-specific endpoint policy covering classification limits, registration, software restrictions, updates, network connection rules, encryption, malware protection, remote wipe, backup and port control
- Device management (MDM or endpoint management) reports showing enrolment, encryption, patch level, firewall and anti-malware status
- Asset inventory with classification for in-scope systems
- Identity provider configuration showing MFA and password policy
- TLS and encryption standards for data in transit
- Removable media policy and technical enforcement
- Data at rest encryption inventory by store type
- Storage configuration baselines with attestation
- TLS configuration standards and scan results
- VPN and zero trust network access policy
- A software asset inventory with vendor, product, version, deployment location and responsible owner
- Defined vulnerability management roles and a list of monitored vulnerability information sources
- Procedures for installing and updating operational software, including authorization, testing and rollback planning
- Change and deployment records showing management authorization, successful testing and the administrator who performed the installation
- Security test plans with schedules, inputs, expected outputs, evaluation criteria and decisions, scaled to the system's importance and change impact
- Security test results covering authentication, access restriction, cryptography, secure coding and configuration
- Hardening standards or benchmarks for in-scope platforms
- Configuration compliance scan results
- Vulnerability scanning coverage report
- Vulnerability triage workflow with severity SLAs
- Software lifecycle policy with end of support tracking
- Patch management cadence and exception register
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
This is a loss history question, not a control requirement. It reaches no held control.
No held control answers this line.
- The topic-specific supplier relationship policy and its communication record
- A supplier inventory categorized by type and by the information, services and infrastructure each can access
- Supplier agreements containing security clauses proportionate to the relationship, such as classification mapping, agreed controls, incident notification, subcontracting, right to audit and termination terms
- A register of contracts, memoranda and information-sharing arrangements with outside parties showing what information each covers and when it was last reviewed
- Security requirements included in ICT acquisition specifications and contracts, including flow-down to sub-suppliers
- Software component information such as SBOMs and descriptions of security functions and secure configuration obtained from product suppliers
- Vendor inventory with risk tiers and the review frequency set for each tier
- Due diligence records, for example vendor SOC reports reviewed with complementary controls noted
- Data processing agreements with privacy clauses
- Periodic assessments of vendors' privacy compliance
- Third party risk management program charter
- Supplier risk policy with tiering criteria
- Standard supplier security requirements catalog
- Contract clause library with cyber obligations
- the bank or treasury platform dual-authorisation setup and the payment approval workflow, showing a second approver on a different device above the threshold
- the callback or out-of-band verification procedure for a change to payee bank details, with a dated example
- A documented awareness, education and training programme aligned with the policies and planned by role, including external personnel
- Completion records for initial training of new starters and role changers and for periodic refreshers
- An authentication standard linking required authentication strength to information classification and system criticality
- MFA configuration and coverage reports for critical systems, remote access and privileged access, including conditional or risk-based rules
- the bank or treasury platform dual-authorisation setup and the payment approval workflow, showing a second approver on a different device above the threshold
- the callback or out-of-band verification procedure for a change to payee bank details, with a dated example
- Fraud risk assessment or fraud section of the enterprise risk assessment
- Analysis of privileged access and data misuse scenarios
- Access policy framework with role definitions
- Privileged access management deployment evidence
- the bank or treasury platform dual-authorisation setup and the payment approval workflow, showing a second approver on a different device above the threshold
- the callback or out-of-band verification procedure for a change to payee bank details, with a dated example
- A documented awareness, education and training programme aligned with the policies and planned by role, including external personnel
- Completion records for initial training of new starters and role changers and for periodic refreshers
- An authentication standard linking required authentication strength to information classification and system criticality
- MFA configuration and coverage reports for critical systems, remote access and privileged access, including conditional or risk-based rules
- the bank or treasury platform dual-authorisation setup and the payment approval workflow, showing a second approver on a different device above the threshold
- the callback or out-of-band verification procedure for a change to payee bank details, with a dated example
- Fraud risk assessment or fraud section of the enterprise risk assessment
- Analysis of privileged access and data misuse scenarios
- Access policy framework with role definitions
- Privileged access management deployment evidence
- Current network diagrams and device configuration backups for routers, switches, firewalls and wireless controllers
- Defined responsibilities and procedures for network device management, separated from system operations where appropriate
- Service agreements with internal and external network providers specifying security features, service levels and requirements
- Right-to-audit clauses and third-party attestations from network and managed security service providers, with records of review
- Network segmentation design defining domains by trust, criticality, sensitivity or organizational unit, with the assessment that justified it
- Firewall or filtering router rules controlling traffic between domains, with rule review records
- Firewall and security group rule sets with review evidence
- MFA enforced on VPN, remote and administrative access
- Vendor inventory with risk tiers and the review frequency set for each tier
- Due diligence records, for example vendor SOC reports reviewed with complementary controls noted
- Network segmentation design with zones and trust levels
- Firewall and access control list governance
- Network flow telemetry coverage map by segment
- IDS or NDR sensor inventory with placement diagram
- The topic-specific supplier relationship policy and its communication record
- A supplier inventory categorized by type and by the information, services and infrastructure each can access
- Supplier agreements containing security clauses proportionate to the relationship, such as classification mapping, agreed controls, incident notification, subcontracting, right to audit and termination terms
- A register of contracts, memoranda and information-sharing arrangements with outside parties showing what information each covers and when it was last reviewed
- Security requirements included in ICT acquisition specifications and contracts, including flow-down to sub-suppliers
- Software component information such as SBOMs and descriptions of security functions and secure configuration obtained from product suppliers
- Vendor inventory with risk tiers and the review frequency set for each tier
- Due diligence records, for example vendor SOC reports reviewed with complementary controls noted
- Data processing agreements with privacy clauses
- Periodic assessments of vendors' privacy compliance
- Third party risk management program charter
- Supplier risk policy with tiering criteria
- Standard supplier security requirements catalog
- Contract clause library with cyber obligations
- Business continuity plans that contain information security requirements and the controls, systems and tools needed during disruption
- A documented analysis of which security controls must be adapted during disruption and how
- The business impact analysis with prioritized activities, supporting ICT services and their RTOs, and RPOs for required information
- Selected ICT continuity strategies covering before, during and after disruption
- Documented availability requirements for business services and systems
- Architecture diagrams showing redundancy such as dual providers, redundant networks, separate data centres, redundant power and load-balanced instances
- Business continuity and disaster recovery plans covering the in-scope service
- Business impact analysis
- Backup policy defining scope, frequency and retention
- Backup job monitoring and failure remediation records
- Resilience architecture patterns for critical services
- Failover and failback tested with evidence
- Recovery plan with triggers and decision rights
- Execution log of recovery activities
Controls not asked in this held document (235)
None of this held document's questions reach 235 of the 290 held controls (for example A.5.5, A.5.6, A.5.7, A.5.8, A.5.9, A.5.10, A.5.11, A.5.12). That is a fact about this held document, not about what the carrier underwrites on: a carrier's fuller forms and supplements ask controls this summary does not, multi-factor authentication, offline backups and patching among them. A control here is not asserted as required, and not asserted as not required.